Mark Richardson: If we can fix the hobblers, we'll be competitive

As we head into potentially a very interesting summer of cricket against the West Indies and India, to be honest, we are not in a healthy state at all.

When I say healthy, that's just it, our players are far from healthy. It's an American term so let me change that to: we are far from fit.

Kane Williamson is out with a broken finger, Brendon McCullum has a back injury and for want of a better term is falling apart in his later years, Ross Taylor has a dicky knee, Corey Anderson has bad ribs, Tim Southee is carefully returning from injury, as is Daniel Vettori, and Martin Guptill appears to be accident-prone right now.

Throw into the mix that Jesse Ryder now has an injury to go with his other issues and we are left with either putting together a team of hobblers or cobbling together a team of second-stringers.

Then there's the form of key performers, and that's not overly healthy right now either. McCullum is right in the middle of a slump and has had no cricket to gain any form, Hamish Rutherford has lost his mojo having only averaged just 14 from his last 12 innings in all cricket and the second coming of Peter Fulton has run out of steam somewhat.

Now factor in that in the build-up to this series, there has been a less than impressive tour of Bangladesh and a heavily rain-affected short-form tour of Sri Lanka and the prognosis is not flash. The only damned positive I can find is Ish Sodhi but it's still a little early to say we've found our Shane Warne. My goodness - if I wasn't so comfortable with such negativity, this situation would be causing serious concern to my health; my mental health.

Okay, enough of that because the reality is that if the trainers can get our best team fit, the selectors can pick a team to have a lot of confidence in and one that I believe can beat the West Indies and even put India under pressure.

Rutherford or Fulton opening with Ryder followed by Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, McCullum, Anderson, BJ Watling, Vettori, Southee, Trent Boult, Sodhi or Neil Wagner - that's a team or 13-man squad that actually looks pretty good.

But you have to get it out there and, right at this moment, get enough of it in form. You can immediately scratch Ryder and Williamson and put a question mark over Taylor and Anderson and then keep your fingers crossed over McCullum, Southee and Vettori and finally hope that McCullum, Rutherford and Fulton find their form once more.

It's all there, it's just it's a bit broken right now but it will be all right on the night. I hope.